Essent Group Ltd. Announces Closing of Initial Public Offering and Full Exercise of Underwriters' Option to Purchase Additional Shares

November 05, 2013

HAMILTON, Bermuda, Nov. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Essent Group Ltd. (the "Company") today announced the closing of its previously announced initial public offering of 22,666,635 shares of its common shares at a price to the public of $17.00 per share, including 2,956,517 shares issued upon the exercise in full of the underwriters' option to purchase additional shares.  A total of 19,956,517 shares were sold by the Company and a total of 2,710,118 shares were sold by certain selling shareholders. The Company received net proceeds from the offering of approximately $313.1 million, after deducting underwriting discounts and other estimated offering expenses.  The Company did not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling shareholders.  The shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on October 31, 2013 under the symbol "ESNT."

The book-running managers for the offering were Goldman, Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Barclays Capital Inc. and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLCDowling & Partners Securities, LLC, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc., Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc., Merrill Lynch Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated and Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, acted as co-managers for the offering.

A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and was declared effective on October 30, 2013. The offering of these securities is being made only by means of a written prospectus. A copy of the final prospectus related to the offering may be obtained from the prospectus departments of Goldman, Sachs & Co., Attention: Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, New York 10282, telephone: 1-866-471-2526, facsimile: 1-212-902-9316 or email: prospectus-ny@ny.email.gs.com; J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Ave., Edgewood, NY 11717, telephone: 1-866-803-9204; Barclays Capital Inc., c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, telephone: 1-888-603-5847 or email: barclaysprospectus@broadridge.com; or Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, One Madison Avenue, 1B, New York, NY 10010, telephone: 1-800-221-1037 or email:  newyork.prospectus@credit-suisse.com.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful, prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any state or jurisdiction.

About the Company

The Company's wholly owned subsidiary, Essent Guaranty, Inc. ("Essent"), offers private mortgage insurance for single-family mortgage loans in the United States.  The Company, a Bermuda limited liability company, was organized in 2008. Essent began writing business in May of 2010.

                                                              

SOURCE Essent Group Ltd.

Janice Daue Walker, JD Walker Communications, LLC, 610.230.0556, media@esssentgroup.com